Note 2685 — Chapter XXVIII · ARABIC OCCULT SCIENCE OF THE NINTH CENTURY

Lyons 328, fols. 70-74, Liber prestigiorum Thebidis (Elbidis) secundum Ptolemeum et Hermetem per Adhelardum bathoniensem translatus, opening, “Quicunque geometria atque philosopia peritus astronomiae expers fuerit ociosus est.” In this MS the treatise closes with the words, “ut prestigiorum artifex facultate non decidat.” This seems to be the only MS known where the translation is ascribed to Adelard of Bath. It seems to have once been part of Avranches 235, 12th century, where the same title is listed in the table of contents. Haskins, in EHR (1911) 495, fails to identify the work, calling it “a treatise on horoscopes.” It is to be noted, however, that Albertus Magnus in listing bad necromantic books on images in the Speculum astronomiae (cap. xi, Borgnet, X, 641) gives the same Incipit for a liber praestigiorum by Hermes, “Qui geometriae aut philosophiae peritus, expers astronomiae fuerit ...” Undoubtedly the two were the same.